McCrossen, Perkins, Pelon, Vanderlip
And Ullom Family Genealogy Pages

The History Of Ada's Bridge's

Ada was a river community, positioned between the Thornapple and Grand Rivers. Its prosperity and development were tied to its bridges: As bridges went up, so did the fortunes of the village.

The most well-known and revered of Ada’s bridges has always been the covered bridge over the Thornapple River. Built by Will Holmes, an Ada resident, the bridge opened to foot and horse-drawn traffic on July 7, 1867. It measured fourteen feet wide, fifteen feet high, and 125 feet long. A near replica of bridges built in New England at the same time, Ada’s bridge featured. lattieework tied together by long wooden pegs. A timber on the southwest corner of the bridge bears the inscription “J. Brown! Patented 1867,” presumably the mark of the latticework designer.

In 1904 Ada was thriving, with a hotel, public school, two churches, railroad station, three blacksmith shops, post office, two general stores, basket factory, sawmill, gristmill, and twenty-five to thirty-five homes. The bridge was then known as the Bradfield Bridge, for its proximity to John Bradfield’s gristmill.
But during 1904 and 1905, Ada experienced the worst flooding in its history. The flood nearly swept away the bridge. Villagers and township residents, desperate to save the one bridge which connected their community, fought the rising river for days while it threatened the bridge.
Local farmers loaded wagons with stones and drove them onto the bridge to hold it down. To relieve pressure and allow the river water to flow through the bridge, men removed boards on the sides. The bridge was even tied with a thick cable to a big elm tree at the southwest end.

The bridge was saved, and remained in its original condition until 1913 Then Moses Whaley, the highway commissioner, realized the bridge needed work and reinforced the original timber abutments with concrete.

In 1930, the Kent County Road Commission opened a new concrete bridge just north of the covered bridge and closed the covered bridge to vehicular traffic. Eight years later, the Road Commission wanted to tear down the old bridge, but a public out cry led by the Ladies Literary Society of Ada forced the Road Commission to abandon the plan. Instead, the commission decided to improve the bridge with recycled materials of about the same age. It bought an old barn near the bridge, tore it down, and salvaged its lumber for a new roof and sides. The commission also installed new creosote shingles, some beams, and roof supports.

At one time, there were six covered bridges in Kent County alone, a record within the state of Michigan. By 1976, the Ada bridge was one of only four left in the entire state: White’s Bridge in Lowell, Fallasburg Road Bridge, Centreville Bridge in St.Joseph County, and the bridge at Ada.

Late on the evening of Sunday, September 9, 1979, Ada’s original covered bridge burned, a victim of arson. The township constructed an accurate reproduction on the same site, and dedicated the new bridge in November of 1980. Today’s bridge is a visual symbol for the village and the township and is the site of Ada’s only state historical marker.

Ada’s Other Bridge;
Ada had another covered bridge over the Grand River, and this bridge was the lifeline of township farmers. Its predecessor, the first known bridge over the entire Grand, was wooden, not covered, and located nearly at the foot of Honey Creek Road. Robert Hilton built the original bridge in 1848, with funds collected from the sale of land deeded by the state to the county for the express purpose of bridge-building.
By 1851, however, the condition of the old bridge was “such to endanger life and property in crossing.” The county couldn’t afford to repair it, so Ada residents Rix Robinson, Randolphus Chaffee, Daniel Perkins, Orlander J. Odell, and John H.Withey formed the Ada Bridge Company.
These enterprising men went on to raise money by selling stock — capital stock listed at $6000 total, with 240 shares sold at $25 each. The company dismantled the old bridge in 1853, sold the used lumber, and hired bridge builder Jared N. Brasee. (Old records do not agree on the bridge builder’s name. The builder of both White’s and Fallasburg covered bridges, still in use, is recorded as Bressee, Brazee, and Jural N. Breese. Whatever his name, he was obviously Michigan’s best wooden bridge builder.)
The new covered bridge, built in1856-57, cost $5725.00 for labor and materials. The contractor collected a toll while the bridge was under construction and turned over $150.00 to the Ada Bridge Company. The company then hired a toll collector for $180.00 year and operated the bridge until 1877, when declining income forced the company to sell the bridge to Ada Township for $3000

For twenty years, the covered bridge over the Grand River required a toll. The toll charge depended on method of conveyance and other characteristics, as follows:
1 horse vehicle ............... 6 cents
2 horse wagon .............. 10 cents
Person on foot ................ 1 cent
Farmers with stock .......... 7 cents for “eveiy score of swine, sheep, or calves”
Person on horseback ...... 2 cents
Year’s pass for “foot persons”....... $1
Church members ........... Free on Sundays
School teachers and children ........ Free
Funeral processions ................ Free

Making way for the modern;
In 1917, Brasee’s covered wooden bridge over the Grand was torn down {Read My Grandfather's Poem, next page} and replaced by a new iron bridge. Located slightly upstream from Honey Creek, the new bridge was angled across the river for the shortest span. Just eighteen feet wide, the iron bridge had only two narrow lanes.
By the 1950s this bridge became a bottleneck. On an average day, 3400 cars passed over the bridge. Fulton Street, or M-21, now passed right by Ada village and required a bigger and better bridge for its increasing traffic.
Ada had changed — and so had bridge building. Engineers decided the best solution was to re-route the Thornapple River and create a new channel and river mouth.
Land that was the site of Ottawa and Potawatomi camps, Ada’s first tavern, and Rix Robinson’s first home, was literally picked up andmoved. The Thornapple River flowed into a new channel excavated 500 feet upstream, and a four-lane concrete and steel bridge rose almost directly over the old riverbed.
After just one year of construction, the new bridge over the Grand was finished ahead of schedule and opened to traffic on October 21, 1957.

[Note: References for the above article are from, Lowell Ledger, October 11, 1956; And From the book "A Snug Little Place", Memories Of Ada, Michigan 1821~1930 Complied by the Ada Historical Soiciety and written by, Jane Siegal.]